Farm owner sentenced to home detention for egg deception

Mr John Garnett, owner of
now-defunct Northland egg producer Forest Hill Farm, has
been sentenced to 12 months home detention and 200 hours
community service in the Whangarei District Court today for
falsely packaging and selling cage eggs as free range or
barn-laid eggs.

In
sentencing, Judge Harvey said he considered it to be very
serious offending and had resulted in the public being
severely let down. He indicated that public confidence would
be diminished by this deliberate offending over a
considerable period of time which was done to deceive
customers.

Between April 2010 and November 2011 Mr Garnett
and his company packaged cage eggs into cartons labelled as
“free range” or “barn-laid” eggs and sold those eggs
to retailers. The retailers, including several large
supermarkets in Auckland and Northland, believed the
contents were genuine and as described on the cartons, so
sold them to customers. The Commission estimates that Forest
Hill Farm made an additional $376,000 from the sale of over
206,000 dozen falsely labelled eggs with a retail value in
excess of $1 million.

“We considered the conduct in this
case to be very serious as it was calculated and deliberate.
We only became aware of Mr Garnett’s actions after members
of the egg producing industry made a complaint to the
Commission,” said Commerce Commission Consumer Manager
Stuart Wallace. “The conduct was also particularly
deceptive because it was impossible for the public to detect
– you can’t tell the difference between a cage egg and a
barn-laid or free range egg by looking at
them.”

“Consumers who purchased these eggs were
subject to a serious breach of trust by the trader. It’s
likely that consumers who purchase free range eggs do so as
a matter of principle, as they are significantly more
expensive than cage eggs. We think consumers are entitled
to trust what traders tell them, particularly where the
consumer has no way of independently verifying the claims
being made.”

“Not only have consumers and retailers
been misled, but there is also the potential harm caused to
other businesses in the industry. Mr Garnett’s actions
might have a negative impact on the reputation of all free
range egg producers as consumers lose confidence in their
products,” said Mr Wallace.

“The Commission is pleased
by the sentence handed down in the case as it sends a clear
message to the business community that those intending to
defraud the public will be caught and the penalties can be
serious,” concluded Mr
Wallace.

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